


The Queen of Blades...and her sister, Blackarachnia.

by Voldine



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, StarCraft, Transformers: Beast Wars
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 02:48:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11266359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voldine/pseuds/Voldine
Summary: Comic-Con was supposed to be this great event this year for my sister and I. It was our first time attending in costume, and we both had the chance for Simon Furman to sign the comics we each brought with us. Matching both our interests and our costumes; she'd brought an old Beast Wars comic while I brought my mint-condition Starcraft comics.My name is Sarah, and I suppose you could say that my last name might as well be Kerrigan now that this cosplay outfit is impossible to remove. My sister is even worse off with most of her body having become mechanical.





	1. Wings of Fiberglass

     "That asshole didn't smudge my makeup, did he?" My voice trembles from holding back tears of pain; one hand clutching my side where a layer of purple and grey latex had marked an easy soft target under a series of harder plastic rib-like structures. My other hand is clenched into a fist around a scrap of his shirt that I managed to tear off while giving him a very clear lesson in why attacking someone wearing hard pointy plastic protrusions all over their legs was a very bad idea.

     "Someone thinking with their dick punches you in the face and abdomen for telling him not to touch your ass, and you're more concerned about your costume than about making sure we tell security to detain him so we can call the cops and press charges" My sister, Liz, shakes her head only to start laughing as I lift up the fist with the scrap of shirt. "Okay, point taken. Are you okay? He didn't have a blade hidden in that punch or anything? Move your hand, Sam!"

     Both hands tense up for a moment at that name; the name that I never considered my own to begin with. Blood pounds in my ears as dark echoes of past taunts resurface in my mind, and I must have a murderous expression on my face because Liz suddenly looks frightened. Next thing I know I have her supporting me and guiding me down onto a bench to sit. I just barely notice a few costumed people standing still nearby, and obviously acting as a wall to create a buffer zone between the crowds and the bench. I don't even realize I'm crying until she pulls a few tissues out of the spherical purse she's carrying and dabs at my cheeks and eyes.

     "Sorry, I'm so sorry, Sarah, it just slipped out! Please don't be angry." I feel her other hand gently probe the area of the abdominal punch, and this makes me flinch away with an involuntary hiss. "Well, no blood and no damage to the costume, but you're probably going to have a nasty bruise. This is not the time to have a breakdown just because I used the wrong name!" I can hear the worry in her voice, and I close my eyes to focus and center myself a bit while gently squeezing her shoulder.

     "I'll be fine, just, please, never call me that again." I squeeze her shoulder a couple more times; a signal we'd developed years ago that we'd talk more later, in private. I take a few more calming and deep breaths before opening my eyes again. The first thing I see is Elizabeth's gold-and-black-painted face looking back at me before she nods in understanding while taking off her helmet to let her red hair down for a bit. "We might need to call it a day a bit earlier than expected, or at least get something to eat now while my face is already messed up. The police will probably want me to remove the facial makeup to document my injuries anyways."

     "Security and police report first, then lunch at a local restaurant sounds good. Food's on me, and I have the retouch kits for both of our faces in the purse if you decide to come back after lunch." This brings a painful smile to my face and I carefully stand up from the bench.

     Before we can go anywhere one of the people who created the living wall around us clears their throat: a teenager wearing a purple dress with pink and fuscia patches as well as matching pink gloves and boots, with purple feathered wings made of cardboard. "Excuse me, I know this is probably a bad time, but those are the best costumes I've ever seen of those characters and I just **have**  to get a picture with you." The others who stood watch all nodded and chimed in as well, including a man painted in the red and black chaos of Carnage offering to add his observations of the incident.

     "I heard what that animal said to you, miss, and he clearly needs a lesson in hate crime laws. I would have done something more to prevent his escape, but I did manage to record the whole thing by chance." Even his phone is red and black. A passerby is commandeered to get all the pictures everyone wants, then the three of us head off to present the damning evidence.

     Three hours later, after an uncomfortable recounting of the incident and a delicious sushi lunch, we arrive back at the convention center with raised spirits and special cargo. In one hour there is going to be a panel that includes comic writer Simon Furman, followed by a chance to get autographs. Liz brought a single Beast Wars comic, whereas I have my collection of mint-condition StarCraft comics carefully tucked away alongside a few select valuables and necessities in an armored pocket hidden behind the 'bone-plates' covering my stomach: wallet, phone, emergency charger, emergency solar panel in case no outlets are available, tampons in case my sister forgot. I had to be inventive, since my costume wasn't one that would allow for a purse. A glance at my sister's back makes me stop, then laugh before calling out while we pass a souvenir setup. "Liz, wait, your hourglass is mussed up and there's some bunching. I think it happened when you sat down for lunch and I didn't notice before." I kneel down, frowning as I try to smooth things out using the palms of my hands and grateful that Liz had used a firm plastic base for the back 'shell' piece of the costume rather than making the whole thing out of shiny spandex.

     "Well hello ladies! My my, such fine costumes, and so accurate to the source material." The sudden voice sends a shiver down my spine as I quickly stand and look into the stall, only to get hit in the face with a foam-rubber spider leg attached to my sister's forearm. "A Spawn of Amon and the least toy-accurate character since Jetfire, one with a perfect costume and the other missing her pincers." The guy in the stall strikes a severely strong chord of wrongness in me. For one thing, why would someone dress like the Happy Mask Salesman from Ocarina of Time at Comic-Con?

     "My costume is not incomplete. I'm not about to put on some oversized chopsticks just to please a stickler for detail either. Other than that, your compliments are accepted and appreciated on my part." Liz's tone brooks no argument, though her face does light up a bit as she looks at the vast display of wares. Masks are by far the most common thing available, including a few that are so detailed as to make it appear that characters have been beheaded. One thing catches my eye as well, but I take care to avoid showing any of the excitement I feel as my eyes trace the outline of a C-20A Cannister Rifle replica.

     "Of course, of course, I wouldn't dream of questioning your design decisions on a matter of practicality such as having hands. Now, for ladies of such distinguished tastes only the best wares will do... and I only stock the best wares. Each one absolutely unique and guaranteed not to break due to casual use." His attention turns to my sister and he steps out of my sight while I look around to see what else he has to offer so I get a better price when I start off with something other than that gun. "I even have an MP-05 Megatron with the arm armatures made of titanium alloy to fix that annoyingly common breaking issue."

     "Oh, no. I'm sorry, but I hate that mold and I just bought an MP-36 last month." I hear her open her purse and reach in before I look over at her and grab her wrist before she can pull the new toy out. My gaze flicks to the man dressed as O'aka and I can't help but wonder why that seems like such a strange costume.

     "Liz, think before you act. You were about to pull out a collector's item toy **shaped like a gun**  in the middle of a crowded convention hall. I don't care if security cleared you to carry it as long as it stayed inside a plastic bag; I don't want you to start a panic when some idiot can't tell the difference between a plastic P-38 and a metal one. Now that I've said that loud enough for everyone in earshot to have heard that this is simply a high-end TOY, you can show the man." I glance around at the people nearby, and I notice a few of them either shaking their heads or laughing. One guy has a camera pointed right at my ass... at least he isn't grabbing it.

     "You know, Sarah, you could have done that without embarrassing the shit out of me." Her angry tone suggests that she's not going to be chipping in for gas on the drive home, and I return to looking at the other items the guy dressed as Marcus is offering. _Why is he dressed as a Borderlands character when this is a comic convention? Why is he glaring at me? You'd think a guy would be happy having two women whose costumes render them little better than nude standing at his booth for an extended length of time. Maybe he's gay, or married. Shit, Liz was right; this guy has so many gun and weapon replicas on display that nobody would blink at another one. How the hell did he clear all this with security? How the hell did I manage to spot that C-20A among all these other ones? Why is he grinding his teeth instead of looking at Liz... no._  I close my eyes and take a deep breath while bringing my hands up to my temples and gently massaging for a few seconds. _Shut out the world, center yourself, breathe and calm down. Nobody is glaring at you. Nobody but Liz even has a reason to be angry with you right now._

     "Well now that is some nice engineering there. May I hold the bag for a moment miss, Liz was it?" Shutting the world out isn't working very well, and something just sounds off about his voice or that is an extremely bad impression. "Here, as insurance that I'm not about to make off with this expensive toy how about looking over these two pieces to see if they interest you?" Two heavy thuds rattle the table and I quickly open my eyes. "One Autobot Matrix of Leadership, and one Key to Vector Sigma."

     Liz starts bouncing like a little girl and grabs my left shoulder to shake me. "Holy shit, Sarah, look at these!" It's unnecessary since I already have, my gaze just barely catching the guy in the Undead Burg Hollow Merchant costume and I shiver at how digustingly realistic his makeup job is, as well as wrinkling my nose as I swear I smell decaying flesh for a moment. Even I can't help but marvel at the workmanship in these two pieces. The Matrix is sized for a human but clearly made of silver and gold, or at the very least it has been electroplated with those metals. "That is the largest sapphire I've ever seen!" I can't help but cringe and shake my head while looking over the other one.

     "Liz, there's no way that's a sapphire. Something that large would be worth more than this entire building and the net worth of every person inside it. It's most likely glass, but the whole unit would be worth at least three hundred in materials alone unless the casing is made of plastic. It's too heavy for that unless this 'Key' is depleted uranium." The key is more intricately detailed than the Matrix. It is easily an inch thick and superficially looks like a remote control of some kind, but it has lines and patterns of silver and some blue crystals which I can't even come close to identifying. "This, on the other hand, I can't begin to guess how much this is worth." I look up again as I swear I see some light flash nearby. Oh...now that is interesting. A Zerg Drone plush, about a foot long. This time I can't hold back the smile as I move to get a different viewing angle on it.

     "That would be the true form of The Key, young miss. Many of the Geewun Purists would call it a bastard fusion of the 'real' Key and the one used in Transformers Prime as little more than a super-sized memory stick." Liz giggles at that, and I roll my eyes as I realize that no matter how good a deal I manage to get on my choices this guy is going to earn a fortune off of us. "Now, it seems you finally found something else you like." Before I can blink the man dressed as the Tavernkeeper from Dungeon Defenders places the cannister rifle and the drone plush in front of me. I look up and my stomach twists as I look into his eyes. Bile rises in my throat and I quickly look down to help ease that instant rush of nausea. I try to hide my haste by pulling open that clever pocket on my stomach and reaching in for my wallet. "For you two lovely ladies I offer a special one-time deal: buy one, get one free." _Anything to get us moving, we're holding up other business...wait, where did that thought come from? Fuck it, nevermind, those eyes aren't human! Nobody has irises that are purple and green with blue capillaries in the sclera._

     "W-wow, what a great deal. You have no idea how much that kind of compliment means to me right now." I stammer, fumbling a bit before finally managing to twist my arm to the right angle so the ridges and spines on the back of my forearm don't get stuck at the rim of the opening. I try to keep my face stuck in a smile as I look up and see him as the vendor from the secret shop in DotA 2. I can't keep it as he flickers like a bad projection. Everything around me goes silent as I watch a deep saucepan appear on his head with the handle facing me and that huge double-chin turn into a beard. His clothing, no, his **disguise**  becomes Crazy Steve from Plants versus Zombies for a solid five seconds before it begins flickering too fast for me to even register individual forms. "H-how much will that be, then?" My vision starts going dark, as if all the lights except the ones over this creature's booth had gone out. "W-we'll give you w-whatever you want."

     "You little bitch. You see me." I can't move, hell, I can barely breathe as his form becomes incomprehensible, like something Lovecraft would have come up with if he'd done LSD and had a really bad trip. "I should have known better than to come to a version of this planet with latent psionic potential, no matter how miniscule it is in the general population. I will take your sister's humanity, and her home, but she can keep her hands. I'll take your humanity. I'll take your home. I could take your mind, but it might be more cruel for me to leave you that much. Good luck trying to stay sane, Samuel James Destefano, on a world where hormone treatment and gender affirmation surgery do not exist." His form solidifies into a humanoid of pure black with glowing white eyes, like white dwarf stars on an otherwise featureless face. "Take your toys, and get out of my sight!"

     As my vision truly does go black I feel a few things collide with me, and I manage to overcome whatever he's using to paralyze me in order to scream one last defiant thought at him; "That is not my name, you alien rectal wart!" The instant splitting headache tells me that was a bad idea, and I feel something start flowing in my nose before unconsciousness takes me.

* * *

 

     "Sarah, wake up. Wake up, I'm freaking the fuck out!" I don't recognize the voice, and I groan in pain as I open one eye. The angle of the impact tells me that whoever spoke just punched me in the back of my left shoulder. The force of the impact tells me that whoever it was doesn't know their own strength, because that really hurt. The sound of metal on bone, not plastic, and the feeling of things on the back of my head twitching in response to these stimuli are what really wake me up.

     "Shit, what the fuck is going on?" My wings twitch as I sit up.  _Wait, what? I don't HAVE wings!_  I stand, stagger, and fall flat on my ass in a foot of snow as I quickly find out that my feet are no longer supported by clear plastic wedges around what simply looked like a four-inch bone spike for a heel. My wings flex and dig into the ground to help lift me up onto my feet again, and I begin to realize what that being meant when it said it would take our humanity. Standing in front of me, one hand on her knee and the other being shaken to try and remove some mucousal fluid that transferred when she punched me, is Blackarachnia. More accurately; my sister in a Blackarachnia costume that has actually become mechanical. _I have to be sure..._  "Liz? Is that really you?"

     She glares at me, and it is **odd**  to see metal flex like skin to create her facial expression. "Who the FUCK else would both look like this AND KNOW YOUR NAME?"

     "Anyone could recognize Sarah Kerrigan, and for all you knew you just punched the real Queen of Blades until I said your name." _I_ _know I shouldn't be angry about that, but goddamn she needs to start thinking before she does something that isn't work-related._

     "Sarah Francessca Destefano, stop assuming that I'm a complete moron for just one second, PLEASE! Your pocket still exists, you had your wallet in your hand and the spare box of tampons you INSIST on carrying with you any time we go anywhere together was still inside. I knew exactly who you were before I punched you." Any further argument is interrupted by a flash of light that is absolutely blinding for me with the snow on the ground and falling around us reflecting and refracting it; eliciting a shriek as I bring my hands up to cover my eyes.

     "Faam, E tet hud aqbald du veht cusadrhk mega aedran uv oui rana." The voice is musical, but the language unknown...and yet I can hear an echo in my head. My hands go from holding my eyes to clutching my temples as I shake my head in a vain attempt to silence this echo. ~ _Well, I did not expect to find something like either of you here.~_  "E tet hud aqbald du veht yhodrehk yd ymm vun yhudran vevdo oaync." ~ _I did not expect to find anything at all for another fifty years.~_  I open my eyes to realize that I haven't been blinded after all, and I see my sister alternating between looking at me and at the entity that has appeared somewhere to my right. "Fryd yna oui?" ~ _What are you?~_

     Liz looks at me one more time before growling and bending down to grab something off the ground. Silver, black grip, black 'scope,' and slightly oversized for her...no, perfectly sized for her hand now...odd. "Look, flying horse-thing, I don't know who you are or what the FUCK your glowing horn is doing, but you are hurting MY SISTER. Either you stop hurting her right now or we all find out exactly what my little toy here can do after that guy dressed like the JojaMart representative who sent us here touched it. I'd rather not get blood, or whatever internal fluids you have, on my hands so quickly, but NOBODY FUCKS WITH MY FAMILY; WE'RE ITALIAN!"

    "Elizabeth Maria Destefano, stop yelling when I already have a headache. It's not helping."

     "E ybumukewa vun yho" ~ _I apologize for any~_  "discomfort in the process, but I had to fine-tune the translation matrix of my spell for the unknown language. There was no way to do that without either some kind of sample, or invasive mental probes. I elected to go with the former as I had made the latter illegal to use on sapient beings outside of times of outright war over a century ago." Oh, good, the echoing stopped...but there is still an almost-whisper in the back of my mind that is less painful and more of an annoyance akin to a mosquito buzzing in my ear. "While I do not appreciate the threat against my health I simply must applaud your loyalty to your family. Loyalty is a key value in the nation I govern. If you could please lower the weapon I would be happy to continue this discussion in a more civil manner." Liz blinks, looking at me in confusion until I nod and gesture for her to stop threatening whoever this is. I do my best to stand up straighter myself, wiping away the tears on my face before they can freeze as I turn and behold the palest shade of pink I've ever seen. "Thank you. My name is Princess Celestia, and the two of you tore a hole in the Weave the size of Manehatten somehow."

     "You're a talking pegasus...with a horn, and you're making horse puns." I blink as I finally notice the faint reverberation my own voice seems to have, but the snow is falling straight down now rather than blowing sideways, so the wind not flooding my ears might explain that. "Nope, not going to think too hard about that at the moment. My sister and I need to get somewhere warm before we," I cringe and look over at Liz again before continuing, "sorry, before I begin to get frostbite. I think Liz may be beyond such frailties of the flesh for the forseeable future."

     "Liz? That would be short for 'Elizabeth Maria Destefano' which I heard you say?" The princess shifts her focus towards my sister, who simply nods as if not trusting herself to speak. The golden glow around her horn intensifies slightly, and the air feels a bit more comfortable without really eliminating the chill. "So, what would your name be then?"

     "Call me Sarah, and try to avoid using more than our first names unless we have caused a huge problem and need to be given some kind of lecture or punishment." I manage a smile, no teeth, and the hor-Princess Celestia smiles in return.

     "I-I have some sensors telling me that some lubricants in my body are about ten degrees away from crystallization, actually. I may not get frostbite anymore, not that we know that for sure yet, but that doesn't mean freezing temperatures aren't a threat to my safety. You mentioned spells, right? Is there any chance you could create a warm room for the three of us if this discussion needs to take place now? Eight degrees."

     "Oh, of course. Let me see...five walls of force and a radiant heat spell on a stone table. You two look like you would fit comfortably in the chairs that we use for minotaur ambassadors and their families when they visit, one backless. Afternoon tea with some pastries, I think, would hit the spot." I take her word for it on the walls of force, but the other items begin appearing as she names them and both of us sit down after she gestures with a forehoof. "Now, let us talk of why you have invaded the territory of the Crystal Empire, which still exists even if it has been missing for nine and a half centuries, and is a protectorate state of the Unified Equestrian Nations despite its name. Let us also speak of how you managed to nearly destroy the local Weave. Finally, you will convince me why I shouldn't have one of you sentenced to at least twenty years of community service for threatening me with a weapon of unknown capacity and therefore potentially ending all life on this planet since I control the movement of the sun."

     "GODDAMNITT LIZ!"


	2. Spark of the Swarm

     It takes me a minute to process the fact that that almost chime-like sound is the laughter of Princess Celestia, who currently has her head laying on the table with her muzzle covered by her forelegs. "The looks on your faces! I'm sorry, but it has been decades since I have been able to pull a prank like that. You really thought I was going to bring her up on charges when she was trying to spare you pain?" Her laughter continues for a few more seconds before choking itself off with a series of loud and undignified coughs. "Ahem, right *snrk*, why were you in pain anyways? Nothing in my spell has the capacity to trigger pain receptors as it doesn't reach into a mind."

     "I was hearing your voice twice. Once with my ears in your language, and a second later it would echo in my head in English. I have a problem with effects like that, and it's why I can't stand watching foreign films with subtitles. If I hear the speech and read the words at the same time everything gets muddled up because of the different languages." I can't keep a groan from escaping my mouth as I bring my hands up to my face. "Speaking of which, the two of us are going to have to learn your language. Spells for translation are nice and all, but I doubt this one extends to, say, the written form of the language. Similarly; neither of us are capable of spellcasting, so we wouldn't be able to understand Jack or Shit once we get outside a certain range of you, Princess."

     "Oh, well I can certainly understand how disorienting that could be... wait. The only way you could have something like that happen is if you were seeing into my mind. I must insist that you answer the question I asked before your sister threatened me: what are you? You told me who, but not what. Time to come clean, girls." I glance over to Liz and shrug before gesturing for her to go ahead.

     "Short version: We are sisters. We come from a planet called Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy, and we do not know the exact method by which we arrived. We used to be humans, a bipedal species of the primate family that rose to dominance on our planet through tool use and adaptability. I say used to be because the bodies we have now are not those we were born with. We met something at a social gathering, and it turned us into copies of the characters we dressed up as while leaving our minds, our memories, our personalities intact. I don't just look like the character Blackarachnia; I have a good ninety-eight percent of her body. Blackarachnia is a member of a race of sentient autonomous machines known as the transformers. My body is no longer organic, and I should be able to reconfigure myself into the shape of a Northeastern Black Widow spider once I figure out exactly how to trigger that. I already tried the method used in the source material, so I think that might only work as a shortcut after I figure it out the long way." She taps the silver circle on the outside of each thigh and pulls out the MP-36 from one and the Key to Vector Sigma from the other, then taps the yellow Predacon insignia on her collar and I look away as her torso panels separate and unfold, opening so she can remove the Matrix of Leadership as well as exposing her Spark.

     It takes me a second to realize that I can still see this even though I'm no longer looking at her. I close my eyes and continue listening while trying to figure out how I'm seeing her at the same angle as when I was looking her way. I watch her point at the Spark in her chest first. "This is called a Spark. Do your people have a concept of a soul?" Celestia nods in response, her expression that of rapt fascination. "The Spark is essentially the soul of a transformer. It has the drawback of being a physical piece that can be damaged by direct action, or even by pushing oneself too far too fast or too often. When a transformer dies, the Spark copies all memories and personality data from the body to share the experiences of that life when it rejoins with Primus, the deity of creation in their lore. Any questions so far?"

     "How long do they live? How long could **you**  live now that you are one?"

     "Hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of years with proper maintenance, care, and minimal exposure to danger. Moving on to the next item we have the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. This version appears to be the one that serves as the collected memories of every Autobot to ever posess it, as well as one that can provide an upgraded body to one worthy of holding it. I hold it, but I have not earned it. Granted it could be fake...but the crystal wasn't glowing before we came here." The Matrix is carefully picked up and placed back inside of her torso, which closes once more. She taps one finger against the Key before picking up what was once a Megatron toy by the barrel. "This used to be a fun thing, now it's a weapon. He did something to it and I can tell just by looking at it that all the panel lines have fused together. Touching it, holding it as if to use it fills me with a sense of dread. Threatening to use it against you was not comfortable for me. For all I know pulling the trigger on this could call down an entire Decepticon armada, or it could just be a standard gun firing energy instead of bullets."

     I clear my throat, loudly, before opening my eyes. "Perhaps I should go on with telling the princess what I have become before you explain the capabilities of that last item, Liz. Even though she doesn't seem to mind it; she asked about us, not our inventory. You already know my name is Sarah. The name of the character that I used to only be dressed up as is Sarah as well. Sarah Kerrigan, Queen of Blades, Eternal Will of the Swarm, Successor to the Overmind...Queen Bitch of the Universe. She was once human before being betrayed and left for the Zerg to kill her. Instead she was captured and infested, turned into a hybrid between human and Zerg. Even before becoming corrupted and having her limiter implants removed she was easily able to read surface thoughts of those nearby with enough detail to know when someone was having a sexual fantasy involving herself. I'd say i'm still a few steps below that point so far, and a great deal below a level 12 on a ten-point scale. That explains my ability to read your surface thoughts. The Zerg are a collective of parasites and hosts. Parasites infest a host body and cannibalize it most of the time, stripping out the best parts and adding it to any compatible soldier strains. Infestation can also be used to strengthen exceptional individuals at a cost. This form that I have, the armor plating, the purple glowing cracks in the skin of my face, the exposed muscles, and the telepathic communication tentacles for hair; this is Kerrigan after absorbing the essence, the vital strength and primal power of the planet Zerus. I have no intention of conquest by force, but I can guarantee that I will grow to become very powerful. The question I put to you, Princess, is a very simple one: do you wish to make allies today, or enemies?"

     "Allies whenever possible, and you two would make strong allies indeed if even half of what you claim is true. It may be best to keep the two of you away from population centers for at least the first few months while you acclimate. Obviously you're going to want someplace warmer than this..."

     "Do you have any areas that are inhospitable to most forms of wildlife, including plants? I'd rather not risk accidental infestations before I'm able to find a way to change a few things about how my brood will function. Zerg thrive in areas that force them to adapt, so it will help you in the long run as well."

     "Sarah, what do you mean by your brood? Kerrigan couldn't create drones," I smile and reach into the armored tendrils that have replaced my hair as Liz points out the percieved flaw, withdrawing it after a moment with the second set of eyes I'd discovered on my palm: a no-longer-plush miniature Zerg drone. "So unless you..." She trails off upon seeing it, her mouth closing and opening a few times. "Where did you get that? When did you get that?"

     I don't even need to concentrate to feel the fear and revulsion pouring out of Princess Celestia's mind, and I quickly hide the drone back in my 'hair' for the moment. "That is, perhaps, the most disgusting thing I have ever seen." Looking back in her direction tells me this is no exaggeration as she has backed up into a corner made  by two of the invisible walls of our little room in the snow. Her ears are flat back against her head and her wings are trembling. "That thing...it has no magic. Even the two of you have absorbed some of the radiant magical energy fields as they repair themselves."

     "That's probably a natural defense mechanism for the drone type to keep outside influences from interfering with the ability for it to become various elements necessary for a hive to be able to generate the full range of individual Zerg soldiers. Keep in mind I will attempt to do something to make it so that I am not just a spare army that you would have at your beck and call." My attention turns back to Liz, and I frown as I catch her trying to hide laughter. "Now, about that relocation?"

     Celestia clears her throat, followed by taking a few deep breaths before approaching the table again. "I am afraid that the only location on the planet that is completely devoid of any life would be too dangerous: a massive crystal formation that shatters, explodes, and reassembles itself every five days, destroying everything within an hour's running distance. There is another place, of course, but there would be others like myself nearby. Smaller, weaker, in need of protection from the predators that call Flame Geyser Swamp home. Chimerae, pyrohydras, salamanders, and even an elemental or seventy. All of these threaten regular shipments of food and medical supplies, both of which would be needed less if you were there to make it less dangerous."

     "Why the fuck would anyone be crazy enough to move to a place where everything around you is capable of killing you, and eager to do so?" Liz looks over at me, sees my smile, and facepalms. "Other than a Zerg, Sarah. We're going there, aren't we?" My nod in response elicits a string of muttered cursing from her as she pushes away from the table and stands up so fast that her chair flies back a good five feet. "I'm not leaving anything behind. We'll probably never be able to find this spot again...where the hell is my purse?"

 

* * *

  
     The three of us spend a good ten minutes searching the area inside the room before giving up on finding Liz's purse. Of course, the second Celestia begins returning the furniture to wherever it was before being summoned we find it...right underneath the stone table and miraculously undamaged except for the shoulder strap having gone missing. Celestia lifts it in her magic and floats it over to Liz, who immediately drops it once the telekinetic grip is released. It lands on her foot, producing a distinct ring of metal impacting metal. "I thought you made that out of four bicycle helmets, some red LED's, clay, epoxy, and silver paint?"

     "I did! It's easily seven times heavier than it was before we arrived here, and solid metal...I lost everything inside there..."

     "How? WHY? Nothing else we brought with us was damaged or rendered useless other than our phones what with there being no cellular networks here."

     "Nothing else was designed to look like part of my costume."

     "Ladies? I suggest we hurry up and teleport, otherwise it's going to be night in the swamp." Liz and I look at each other and nod before she crouches to pick up the former purse in a more secure grip. I take quick stock of our provisions, such as they are, and hand the cannister rifle over for Liz to hold in her other hand for the time being. I can't even get my bone-armored fingers inside the trigger guard anyways. "Stand close, and close your eyes...it will help with the nausea if this is your first time teleporting."

      I take her advice, closing my eyes and breathing deeply as I feel some kind of power surround me. One second I smell snow, the next it's hard-boiled eggs. My wings stretch out of their own accord and I take a few steps back from where Celestia stands before I stretch my arms out deliberately to work out a few tense spots. My second deep breath catches in my throat as I feel a presence coil around my mind, embracing me in a way before mostly retreating. ~ ~~ _You are not the Overmind..._~~ _~_  "Celestia, run. Flee for your life."


	3. Nova: 'Rescue' ops.

I waste no time after my warning to Celestia. The miniature drone drops out of my hair and scurries away a short distance to begin mutating into a Hatchery. "Liz, find a vantage point to watch over the area, one where you will not likely be seen." My thoughts gather, only to be disrupted as the tip of a horn and the barrel of my rifle press against opposite temples.

"Sarah, I insist that you explain yourself. You are hardly in a position to threaten me or make demands."

"Don't lose yourself, Sarah. Telling her to leave, dropping the drone, and having it start building for you seconds after she does us a solid? Do not go 'Brood War' on me."

"A Zerg mind contacted me, either that or something close enough to being a Zerg that it makes no difference since it mentioned the Overmind." The gun is immediately removed from its position. "Why would you even think I'd betray her?"

"Oh, I dunno, you screwed me over often enough in multiplayer that seeing a drone start to mutate within fifty feet of me kinda puts me on edge. Either that or it could be the fact that your eyes were glowing green instead of purple right before you said that. Take your pick."

Fear once again emanates from Celestia, followed by a single word before she vanishes in a flash of light. I pay it no mind as I turn in place to take in the entirety of the immediate area. As promised, it is a swampy area with trees that wouldn't look too strange in the backwater areas of Louisiana. The ground is soft and springy, but too firm to casually wear a hole in by rubbing your foot around. It doesn't stand a chance against my heel, though, and the stench of decaying vegetation rises from the black rift in the brown surface. "It's a peat bog, freshwater, near volcanic activity. No salt in the air, plenty of sulfur, and the heat speeds up the decomposition process. Which came first, though, the firey monsters or the fire?"

"What do you think she meant by 'Smooze?' It's certainly not a word I recognized. How do I know if this gun is loaded or not?"

"You'll have time to figure that out, Liz. Aim and shoot, open end points at what you want to kill. If it helps, pretend you're playing Team Fortress 2. Move out."

"As you command, my queen!" My head snaps towards the new voice, only to see Liz standing there with a shocked expression and her hand covering her mouth. "Okay, I think I know what happened to my phone now, because that was the sound clip of Inferno I wanted to play to be sarcastic."

"Why am I not surprised that you had that on your phone?" If sarcasm could be concentrated into liquid form I would have just puked up a gallon. "Let me guess, text from Mom alert?"

"Don't you have something more important to do than needle me over my use of storage space?" She's right, but she's also smiling as she says it. "Find a vantage point. Kill anything that isn't you, one of your Zerg, or a watercolor horse. Wait...how will I tell your Zerg from enemy Zerg?"

"Direction of travel would be a good indicator, for starters!" The wet sound of flesh ripping open and various fluids rushing everywhere as a result heralds the emergence of the completed hatchery structure, and the viscous lavender substance known as Creep begins to spread further. I sink a hand into it, touching every organ in the hatchery at once as I try to get a feel for how this will work now that it's no longer a game. _Larvae gestation tubes: standard, nonindicative of capabilities. Biomass storage? Volatile substances storage: obviously 'Vespene' gas doesn't exist. Energon storage: Minerals, but where...wait, WHAT!? Worry about it later, hatch two drones, standing order: Acquire Resources._ "Liz, we need to talk after we survive this."

No response. I try to stand up, only to wince in pain as I realize my command tendrils have also sunken into the creep. ~ _Converting excess biomass into rebirth chamber for Queen of Blades. More biomass is required to generate further hatchery organs. Creep will digest any biomass not originating from this hive cluster that does not register as being alive. Inititating primary neural connection_.~ Creep surges up the tendrils, tethering me in place even more securely as I feel it reach my skull, gather around the joints where bone meets zerglocks, and press into them.

Agony is the result. Seconds feel like years as neural tissues bridge the gap between the Human and Zerg portions of my brain. My body convulses as synapses are tested, resulting in my wings stabbing into the ground all around me as well as into my own flesh more than a few times, and my throat is left raw and sore by my screams. The living carpet releases its hold on me after about a minute, allowing my body to slump over as I desperately try to catch my breath. Images come into focus quickly as I open my eyes, and my eyes, and my other eyes, followed by the eyes on my actual body. Two sets of eyes have their forward field of view dominated by purple crystals with what looks like lightning trapped inside: my drones. The third remote viewing position is clearly airborn, and bobbing up and down slightly as if constantly adjusting bouyancy: An overlord.

I stand up, my legs shaking from the injuries I inflicted on myself. Enemy approaching base, Queen. The thought coincides with the aerial perspecting shifting in a way that produces a wave of nausea, then zooming in on a swarm of creatures with carapaces as black as onyx. _Come on, come on, heal faster!_ A wave of energy builds up inside of me, releasing after a moment and rapidly regenerating the damaged tissue after leaving me feeling like I just woke up. "Huh...so that's how I trigger the Mend effect, and if I have access to Mend..." I concentrate, holding my arms out in front of me and waiting as the enemy forces approach. "That means I should be able to shoot lightning!"

The leader of the pack of the first assault wave manages to get within ten feet of me before I figure out that I just have to focus my thoughts on which one I want to die first. Unlike the character in the game I am not limited to standing and shooting when enemies are trying to bite my tits off, and I take full advantage of this by crouching low to present a smaller target, as well as to make it easier for my wings to attack anything in front of me as well as to the sides with their devastatingly-sharp tips and serrated edges. As I stand my ground and easily destroy nine out of every ten of these zerglings before they can so much as scratch me; a song begins playing in my head. I blow up the next 'ling's head with a bolt of lightning that chars the wings of four others before I begin singing along. "And now my unfortunate friend you will discover a war you're unable to wiiiiiiin! I'll have you kno-oooow, that I've become INDESTRUCTIBLE! Determination that is incorruptible; from the other side a terror to behold. Annihilation will be unavoidable..."

* * *

 

Six minutes, five additional drones, and four reminders from the brain of the hatchery that it has enough biomass to create a Spawning Pool now later; I have the first dozen Zerglings of my own ready to meet the next wave of enemy forces. Creep and ichor cover my legs and torso, none of it my own as mend has been more than enough to keep up with what little harm has been inflicted on me so far. The occasional enemy head exploding into a cloud of orange mist and black exoskeleton shrapnel well before it reaches my line of defense is enough to tell me that Liz is doing her part and staying hidden. I decide to make use of the luxury of no longer being the first line of defense by using my right wing to stab one of the black-carapaced Zerg in both legs on the same side and pulling it behind the line of my own troops.

It hisses and snaps at me with a mouth that appears far too large for its head. My response is to charge my arm with lightning energy and pull it close enough that my backhand slap becomes a sawblade of bony protrusions starting at my elbow being dragged across its face and utterly destroying one of its insectile compound eyes. "What are you, you genetic clusterfuck? Clearly a Zergling analogue, but what made you?" Tattered wings with drab, faded colors lay along its back with a dull green being the most prominent. Features that do not physically protrude away from the generally horse-like shape are hard to distinguish due to the uniform blackness of its exoskeleton, and it isn't until the horn on its head starts to glow that I realize that it isn't dead yet. ~ ~~ _You will NOT steal my brood, beast!_~~ ~

I whip my wing to the side, trying to fling the not-quite-carcass away as its limbs begin to twitch again. This movement causes the exoskeleton to break and crumble away, revealing neon colored flesh that clashes so horribly against the color of the body part next to it that I can't even continue looking at it. Turning my head away and giving one last flick of my wing likely saves me from more serious damage as the creature screams and violently explodes in a burst of pure magic energy. Two of the three blade-spines are vaporized outright due to being the ones that transected its body, the third one only twitches uselessly as I try to move it. "Baneling morph...without forming a cocoon around itself, and using magic instead of acid. FUUUUUUUUCK THAT HURTS!" Trying to move my right arm is a mistake, the spiked 'pauldron' has shattered, as have the internal bones beneath it, and feeling the edges of bones grind against each other is enough to make anyone want to escape the pain.

The hive mind offers me that escape as I feel my body succumb to shock and my focus shifts to monitoring the battlefield through the eyes of the overlord high above. Another drone egg hatches and it begins to burrow straight down through the creep and peat beneath, seeking out underground reserves of volatile gasses such as methane. My aerial sight picks up a figure running away from the treeline towards where my body has fallen; a figure colored black and gold. I would frown if an overlord were capable of doing so, but I do send a series of commands to the hatchery. Without worrying too much about the how, I attempt to move the overlord further from my little base to establish a bit more breathing room by expanding the creep field.

The alien body obeys, moving with all the grace and speed of an eagle...piloting a blimp. Hello motion sickness, my old friend, I didn't think it was even possible for Zerg to vomit...oh! So that's how overlords spread creep... That's even more unpleasent than I imagined, but the endless torrent of purple biomass is stopped by an explosion inside of this body; becoming a rain of napalm as it is bifurcated by a beam of solidified light. My mind is ejected from the dying Zerg, snapping me back into my own body. "Owwwww, the fuck was that?"

"Tacdnuo dra vuim paycdc! Duilr hud dra binbma cmesa, ryns hud dra uhac dryd ybbayn yc cgehho sehudyn lufc. Vun meva, vun rynsuho, vun Axiacdney!" I can't understand a word of it this time, but the voice is familiar despite the harsher tone. Celestia has returned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Destroy the foul beasts! Touch not the purple slime, harm not the ones that appear as skinny minotaur cows. For life, for harmony, for Equestria!
> 
> Translation of pony language heard while being out of mind-reading range of the speaker.


	4. Legacy of the Smooze

     I feel Liz shaking me, which really isn't helping and she should know better. Three of my zerglings pop like zits as they are struck with some kind of magic projectile, and a fourth is impaled on a lance as a pegasus drops out of the sky and stabs into the ground. Six green beams destroy the black-carapaced brood, leaving only a trace amount of dust behind, and I order my last two soldiers to my side while trying to get back on my feet. "Liz...this isn't a dream..."

     "YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE DREAMING!?" I cringe at the anger in her voice, raising my hands in front of me to attempt to ward off anything more than verbal retaliation. "Why the hell would you think this was a dream? Under what circumstances would this possibly be something that you would dream up?"

     "Food poisoning from bad sushi, or hallucinations from that guy dressed as Carnage slipping us something. We arrived in the middle of an arctic blizzard and I could barely even feel the cold, then an angelic horse appears talking nonsense that becomes intelligible English within a few seconds. You can stop me anytime something I say starts seeming like it makes any kind of sense based on the reality that both you and I have been experiencing for the last thirty years! Why the fuck **wouldn't**  I think this was a dream based on what is going on?" I try to push my own anger down, but a little of it escapes anyways as I order the two zerglings to burrow quickly, causing the two pegasi that were diving at them to arrest their descent. "Why would it be wrong for me to still have some fanciful ideas that would make this a plausible dream?"

     "Frana tet drao ku?" ~ _Where did they go?_ ~ Oh fuck, they're close enough for me to hear everything. Princess Celestia must not have told them about that yet. The voice is deep, and likely masculine, but the two soldiers appear identical.

     "Ihtan dra knuiht, sunuh. Knyp dra lufc yht dyga dras du dra bnehlacc." ~ _Under the ground, moron. Grab the cows and take them to the princess.~_ This voice has a somewhat higher pitch, but a more commanding tone as well. It is simple enough to assume that this one, at least, is female.

     ~" _What did you just call us?_ "~ I know it's a bad idea to let something so small get to me, but I am most certainly not fat. My anger clouds my judgement, as does the prickling pain I'm feeling remotely as spells begin to assault my hatchery. I can even feel my eyes start glowing this time as I scream with both my voice and my mind at once; ~" ** _Stop attacking my hatchery this instant! Celestia! What is the meaning of this treachery?_** "~ Ow, that's going to leave one painful headache later.

     I jump back as a wide beam of flames and light blasts the ground in front of me and over to the guards; grabbing onto Liz's shoulder to avoid falling over as I lose my balance yet again. A tall horse covered in golden armor that has flames coming from every joint, seam, or crack in the metal lands in front of us. She emits a glow along with the flames, creating a zone around her that is almost as bright as day in the deepening dusk. "Drec ec hud dnaylrano. Oui tet hud damm sa dryd ouin teckicdehklnaydina fumit dinh ehdu cusadrehk dryd lnaydac Smooze. Drec ec tecbucym uv tyhkanuic cipcdyhalc." ~ _This is not treachery. You did not tell me that your disgusting creature would turn into something that creates Smooze. This is disposal of dangerous substances.~_

     "Disposal of dangerous substances? This isn't smooze, whatever that is, this is creep." I kick at the slime-covered ground, my foot impacting with a slight squish. "It's a living surface on which zerg buildings grow; one that drains nutrients and digests biomass to grow and spread to better facilitate the growth of a fully functional zerg base. Cast your translation spell again so Liz can understand what you say. She can't read the surface of your mind to get the meaning." _Press your luck a bit more, Sarah, she's not actively trying to disintegrate you yet..._

     Celestia doesn't do anything for a moment other than stare at us. Her horn glows briefly and her voice sounds almost embarrassed once her spell is complete; "Could you repeat that, please? I do appreciate you not shouting into my mind this time, but that does make it rather hard to understand you when we do not yet speak the same language." I oblige her request with a smile on my face, this time leaving off the bit about casting the spell for Liz's benefit. "You call this substance 'creep' and say that it is not dangerous, yet you admit that it drains nutrients from the soil as well as dissolving anything that touches it that is not alive. Draining nutrients from the soil means that it will kill plants and digest them."

     "So what? A few plants die off, the soil loses some growth potential in the future which is easily replenished with the next year's leaves dropping off to decompose. We're in a peat bog, not exactly prime farmland what with the fact that this is called Flame Geyser Swamp, and you yourself mentioned a number of dangerous-sounding beasts so it's not likely to become prime farmland anytime soon."

     "And if it gets out? If this 'creep' were to spread outside of the swamp and begin to grow into areas where we do have valuable and vulnerable farms? What happens when it absorbs enough magic to start moving under its own power? What happens when it starts attacking and digesting living matter? What happens when it starts draining my ponies of their will to live? I have seen this substance before, and creating more of it is not something that I can condone at this time."

     I open my mouth to declare such concerns ridiculous before thinking, but I do manage to stop myself from actually saying those words just yet. "Are you sure you have seen this exact substance before, and not just something that looks quite a bit like it?"

     "Bnehlacc, suna pmylg suhcdanc ybbunylrehk!" A mare's voice calls from somewhere nearby, seeming worried.

     "So kill them like you did to the previous ones. Surely you have more than one disintegration or similar deadly spells available before you head into a battle." Celestia turns her attention back towards us. "Honestly, it's as if they've never fought anything more dangerous than a kobold before when I'm in their vicinity." I can practically hear her rolling her eyes behind that helmet, and Liz actually starts laughing. "I last saw smooze that could move on its own about four thousand years ago, and I lost some good friends shortly thereafter. That was fifty years before the first sighting of these bug-pony monsters, though I have never seen them in this concentration before."

     "So, wait, are you telling us that this planet has had a zerg infestation for the last four thousand years? How the fuck are you not completely overrun and assimilated into the swarm yet?" I nod in agreement. Liz might not be quite as up on the lore as I am, but we both enjoyed playing the game enough to know the basics.

     "Power of the sun, focusing on learning combat spells and training soldiers to kill these monsters on sight, predation from stronger wild beasts? I don't know what your point of reference is, but we do have a flourishing ecosystem with many creatures dangerous enough to even pose a threat to myself if I were to be caught off-guard, and at night."

     "Well, then let us work together to find the source of these pony-zerglings. Don't destroy my hatchery so I can create reinforcements of our own in case one of your soldiers is injured or runs out of spells. I swear that I will allow you to destroy that one building to prevent possible 'smoozification' of the creep after we have destroyed whatever it is that has been speaking to me and controlling this rival brood. Just, have them stop killing things that are clearly helping me, no matter how repulsive they may be to you." My two remaining zerglings emerge from the ground next to her, and do nothing other than walk over to my side where I stroke their heads almost like dogs.

     "Very well, we will not attack your pets." She unsheathes a disturbingly large flaming sword and holds it in the air before rising to be fully visible to her soldiers. "The creatures that are not covered in black carapace are to be left unharmed, for they fight at our side as the pets and soldiers of the skinny cow with bone wings."

     "Humanoid or biped. Please, don't call us cows, skinny or otherwise." I can feel Liz shaking as I keep a firm grip on her arm and a hand over her mouth. I'm doing my best to stay polite while feeling a bit angry myself. "It's a cultural thing, but that comes across as a rather extreme insult to call a thin woman a cow. It's insulting to call any woman a cow, but the less accurate the comparison the worse the insult is."

     "Well, even diamond dog females don't like being called bitches, so I suppose I can see your point, but my soldiers needed an easy reference and you bear a stronger resemblance to minotaurs than dogs." Celestia stops herself, clearly struggling for a moment between diplomat and commander modes. "This is hardly a good time for this kind of discussion. Let us destroy this infestation and then we can sit down and work on some kind of resolution."

     That being said, Liz and I share a look and a nod before I let go of her and we begin to fight alongside our equine allies. Liz stays back with the spellcasters, and I head to the front with the few land-bound combatants that remain uninjured. The waves of enemies start coming in greater numbers and greater frequency after a few minutes, but that has given me time to command a number of overlords to spawn as well as a dozen or so fresh zergling eggs. I use my lightning to pick off any of the neon bugs before they can get close enough to injure anything but a couple of my own troops; though trying to keep myself focused when I'm seeing through over a dozen points of view is proving to be a bit problematic, and the burning sensation of my injured wing regenerating is not helping matters.

* * *

  
     It takes us three hours to locate the enemy base in the bog. Three hours in which five ponies have been severely injured and every unicorn has run out of their internal reserves for casting spells. Celestia has even taken off some of her armor and given it to a retainer that was teleported in after a solid hour of fighting. More than fifty of my own zerglings have died to surprise attacks by the neon baneling analogues. A hill of stone, nearly eighty feet tall and wider at the base than five hatcheries side-by-side. A small opening is visible near the base, creep visibly oozing out of it and forming a small ring around the exterior. A dozen black-carapaced creatures pour out of the opening as we watch, but only four of them are of the proper build to be the sergling-like soldiers we have been fighting the entire way here. This is proven to be true as the other eight run around the creep perimeter and start to nestle down into it as if to sleep, only for the purple substance to form a cyst-like structure around them. "We have less than a minute to get inside of there before those drones finish mutating into something likely to be harmful to us. Good thing there's only four of them in our way."

     Liz and Celestia both nod, with Liz quickly firing off another round that rips one of the approaching zerglings in half. Celestia conjures one of her impossibly powerful solar rays to utterly obliterate the other three, and the three of us follow a wave of my own zerglings towards the hole in the hill. We don't manage to make it before the first of the drones finishes mutating, but the result is what shocks me. "That...that's just a creep colony."

     "Kill now, examine later!" Liz's shout cuts off any further thought I may have at the moment, bringing my attention back to the cave entrance where Celestia stands with her mane hanging nearly limp and almost entirely pink instead of the multicolored aurora it was when we first met. "Sunbutt's running out of juice if her mane's any kind of indication."

     "I'll forgive the use of that name this once on account of our mutual need for support; do not use it again."

     I roll my eyes while running towards the opening, and a single leap carries me through it with inches to spare above the lower lip. Celestia lands next to me seconds later, with Liz dropping down off of her back. I hold my hands a good foot apart while charging them with lightning, creating light as a byproduct as the energy arcs from one limb to the other through the air. Two tunnels oozing with creep lead up and away from us to the left and right while a third is directly in front of us. ~ _ ~~The beast arrives.~~_ ~ I notice Celestia flinch at the thought being imposed into her mind, but Liz shows no reaction whatsoever. ~ ~~ _Know that I am Cerebrate Skrau, servant of the Overmind and made immortal by its will._~~ ~

     "Well, Cerebrate, you may be immortal, but I know it will take you time to revive when I destroy this body. I also know that a weapon such as those weilded by the Protoss can kill you without allowing you the opportunity to revive." I walk forward slowly, expecting to see a titanic brain in the room beyond that inner opening. What I find is much more disturbing, and I hear Celestia gasp, while Liz utters a single syllable expressing her disgust.

     In the center of the room is a pulsing mass of flesh with brain clearly visible behind the thin-stretched membrane, but attached to the side facing the opening is half of a pony. The brain of the cerebrate appears to have burst out the back of its skull, and stray wisps of hair still grow in random patches  of olive green mane on what remains of the head as well as along the 'Cerebrate' body. Defying all logic, the pony appears to still be alive and in pain if the fruitless twitching of the remaining forelimb and butterfly-like wing is any indication. Its mouth is locked open as a larva crawls out and impacts the creep-covered ground with a wet slap, followed by hacking coughs and retches. "Liz; shoot as fast as you can. Celestia; use that sun-blade spell you destroyed my overlord with, and try not to think too much about how that pony got in this condition. I swear it is not something I will ever allow to happen again."

     ~ ~~ _As if you have any control over what I can or cannot do. This mare that birthed me has been my plaything for millenia._~~ ~ I don't need to hear anymore, I don't **want**  to hear anymore, and I give in to the anger that rises in me at all of the implications that word brings along. I charge at the cerebrate and leap to begin attacking it with every weapon I can bring to bear. A shot from Liz blows a hole in the flesh and a crater in the neural cells beneath which I quickly exploit by jamming both of my wings into and starting to pull apart. I hang slightly below the gaping hole I am tearing into the alien mind, creating the perfect target for Celestia to cast her spell on while I interfere with anything it tries to do by zapping it with my lightning every couple seconds. ~ ~~ _You cannot defeat me! I will be reborn again and again! I will never allow you to rest!_~~ ~

     Celestia blasts it with three lances of light, each one searing deeper into the brain and actually cooking some of the meat that it passes near if the scent is anything to go by. I feel the physical form begin to quiver and unleash a focused bolt of lightning down the tunnel left by Celestia's spells. "You're clearly outclassed, Skrau. I am the Queen of Blades, and I take control of this hive cluster from you for the safety of the people of this planet. "

     "Grenade!" Liz finally seems to have found that little feature of the cannister rifle, and a red-glowing grenade round flies down the fleshy tunnel; landing a good fifty feet  inside the vile creature. I release my wings' hold on the tissues of the cerebrate, effectively sealing the blast inside of it while I carefully step back a few dozen feet and watch as the entire thing begins to dissolve in a wonderful, yet revolting, display of teamwork destroying something truly evil.

     "Are we done here...because I feel like I need to sleep for about a week, followed by having a lovely little meltdown over actually being in a different world."


End file.
